Live Your Life

Live Your Life

“Does Rihanna have a responsibility to girls to deal with her abuse in such a way as to make a statement against abusers?”

Rihanna, being a teen influence and role model to many young girls does have the responsibility to make a strong statement against abusers. By Rihanna going back to Chris Brown, she is telling all girls that it is normal to be abused by someone you are supposed to trust. As a victim of abuse, she has the responsibility to take a stand. Sure she is a girl and just an entertainer but she is in a position where many people are influenced by her decisions and look up to her as a “role model”. This pressure comes automatically when you are in the spotlight of the media.

There have been many crazy rumours about the Rihanna-Brown issue from Rihanna being pregnant to Brown proposing to her after a teary reconciliation. They even called a minister to the mansion they were staying at to get married on the spot and complete her fairy tale. There have also been rumours of Rihanna and Brown co-authoring a book together about domestic abuse or travelling from talk show to talk show talking about career rehabilitations. Another outrageous rumour is that they have made sex tapes and Rihanna is worried that they may leak onto the internet at any time. Majority of these rumours are false and have no credibility behind them. It shows that people love making up stories to gain attention and we the listeners will believe anything we see or hear without doing any of our own research behind it. People forget that these are all just rumours and speculation to help with our cravings of gossip. It is true that they have reconciled and are working things out.

The recent news is that the couple has decided to take a ‘’break’’ which may have more to do with the couple only wanting to continue their careers. They did reconcile and spend time together at Sean “Diddy” Combs house after the assault. With her reputation and maybe even her career on the line, staying away from Brown may be her best chance to win the public’s respect and affection. She threw it all away when she decided to go back to Brown, even though the public wished she would not have gone back. This break is a great opportunity for her to recuperate and reflect on her life, her career, and her relationship.

Many disagree with Rihannas’ choice because she is not taking a stance against abusers but I believe she is taking a stance of her own. Rihanna has been highly criticized for her decisions but I believe her undertone message for going back to Chris Brown is forgiveness and love. We live in a society where it is hard to forgive and forget and love is just as complicated and almost impossible. What does she gain from completely leaving Brown? After all of the time she has put into the relationship, it is nearly impossible to let something go that is so close to you. She chose to forgive instead of a grudge. She chose love over hate and as a powerful woman we must respect and understand her decisions. If you are a true fan then you would support her every move and decision she makes. She faced the criticism and stands by what she sang:
"When the sun shines,
We’ll shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be a friend
Took an oath I'ma stick it out till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we'll still have each other".

Actress Archives. Rihanna and Chris Brown Taking a 'Break'. 19 Mar. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009 .

Tucker, Ken. Oprah Winfrey: My Rihanna, Chris Brown Show 'a Huge, Teachable Moment'. 12 Mar. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009 .
Bartolomeo, Joey. Rihanna and Chris Brown Taking Time Apart. 19 Mar. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009 .
Star News. Rihanna and Chris' Secret Wedding. 4 Mar. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009 .

Carter, Shawn., Christopher Stewart, and Thaddis Harrel . Rihanna-Umbrella. 05 Oct. 2008. 28 Mar. 2009 .
Right Celebrity. Rihanna Herpes Rumour: Chris Brown STDs False. 14 Feb. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009 .
Dougherty, Robert. Chris Brown and Rihanna Marriage Rumors Spread. 09 Mar. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009
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Just Google IT!

In the past couple of weeks there have been a couple of federal court decisions involving copyright challenges to Google’s search functions. The most important case was Perfect 10 vs. Google, where their images most likely constituted copyright infringement. Perfect 10 is an adult magazine company and operate a website. They make also make reduced-size copies of their copyrighted pictures to be downloaded onto phones. The issue was brought up against Google in two ways. When people use the Google image search engine to search for Perfect 10 models, thumbnail image’s of copyrighted photo’s show up. Also, when people clicked on that thumbnail image, a webpage with two frames appear. The upper smaller frame is hosted by Google and contains information about the picture. The lower frame shows the original web page but the image is not found there.
Perfect 10 is suing Google for copyright infringement and the display of these images through the frames. Perfect 10 says that by Google using those frames; it infringes its right to “display publicly” and “distribution” of their copyrighted images. The court found Google not guilty of copyright infringement on the lower frame because Google had not encouraged users to visit the third-party infringing websites. Google had no right or control over what was occurring on the third party websites. The court however did find Google guilty of copyright infringement on the thumbnails because they could for free be directly downloaded to cell phones which are the perfect size for cell phone screens.
The second case was between Field and Google. Blake Field is a Las Vegas lawyer who created fifty-one works and obtained copyrights for each work. When the pages containing Fields work in Google’s search results appeared, he filed a lawsuit against Google alleging direct copyright infringement. The court found that Field’s claims were not supported by the law and dismissed Field’s copyright claims. The court found that Google allows web sites to choose whether they want their site to show up on Google or not. Field was aware of this and intentionally choose not to use them.
I believe that Google will never be sued for copyright infringement because they are only providing the links for what the researcher is looking for. Google winning these past lawsuits sets historical precedence and this will help Google in the future win even more of any of these types of cases come up again. Google is just a search engine and nothing more. They help people locate sites and information that they want and lead them to the location. Google is a tool that benefits anyone who wishes to use it. It is very convenient and does not perform any copyright infringements. They are not copying anyone’s info or using it to benefit themselves. If Google were taking info from other peoples sites and claiming the info as their own then that would be copyright infringement. Google has never done this and all they are doing is just giving the seeker the site that they can find what they are looking for on. If you would like to find out more info about this case just remember: “Google it”.

Byer, David J., and Sarah T. Hogan. Intellectual Property Recent Copyright Cases Involving Google's Search Engine Clarify Digital Media Rights Online. Apr. 2006. 10 Mar. 2009 .